Giant Bunting Sugar Cookies

In case you missed my previous post, I planned a baby shower for my cousin that my Aunt threw at her house this past weekend. I decided to do cookies as the favors because, let’s face it, baby shower favors are typically a novelty item and that’s it. I wanted something that people would take with them and actually enjoy! I made giant cookies (they were 5″x4″) and then decorated them with a bunting design (I got the inspiration from this website) in the shower’s color scheme. I put each one in cellophane treat bags then designed and printed the packaging. I think they were an unexpected touch, and added to the decor since they were on the console table when you first walked in!

I started off by making my grandma Niklas’ sugar cookie dough, preheating my oven to 400 degrees and rolling out the dough to 1/8″ thickness. I printed a template onto card stock of a 5″x4″ rectangle and cut them out using a fluted edge pastry wheel. I froze them on silpat lined baking sheets for about 10 minutes before baking to ensure that they would hold their shape. I baked them for about 7 minutes until slightly browned, then cooled completely on wire racks. I made royal icing by combining 1 lb sifted confectioner’s sugar, 5 tbsp meringue powder and scant 1/2 cup water in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and beat on medium speed for 7 minutes. I left the icing fairly thin at this point, since the first layer of icing needed to flood the cookie in a very smooth manner. I tinted some of it a very light royal blue using gel food coloring and put it into a candy melting bottle.

Draw a rectangle with the blue icing leaving quite a bit of cookie border because you still have to pipe dots later on. Let that completely dry (for about 2 hours) and then make two bottles of thicker royal icing (thicken it with more powdered sugar) in a navy color and an apple green color. Pipe the blue dots all around the border, leaving a space in between each one for the green dots and let dry for about an hour, then pipe in the green dots. Once that has totally dried (another hour) then pipe a curved line across the middle in the navy icing and let dry another hour. Pipe in the bunting, as big or small as you like, alternating in color. I chose 4 because I was writing BABY on them and that’s how many letters I need, but you could do more or less.

Let that dry for a couple of hours and then pipe your letters using a really thick white icing. Let the whole thing dry overnight before packing the cookies up. I made these a few weeks before the shower and froze them in between layers of parchment in a tupperwear container.

I took the cookies out of the freezer the night before the shower, but didn’t put them in the cellophane bags until the morning of so that they’d stay soft and delicious. I made the packaging simply by making a 5.5″ x 5″ rectangle in Pages (on my mac) and designing right in there. I printed them onto card stock, cut them out, folded them in half and stapled them right over the top of the treat bags.